There is a tendency by those in the Western
world to view the world markets in chelonia as either an "Eastern" or a "third world"
phenomenon. This tends to give residents of the West a reputation for being
somewhat arrogant about the turtle trade as many view this as a problem that
other countries create, while we try to "repair the damage" or "save the animals". No
attitude could be further from the truth, quite literally we are all in this
together. Thirty-one million, seven hundred and eighty-three
thousand, three hundred and eighty turtles were declared exports from the United
States in just over three years. 31,783,380; This is a huge number by
anyone's frame of reference.

Through a series of Freedom of Information
(FOIA) requests we have obtained the numbers of declared chelonian exports of
native species, both captive
born and wild caught, from the United States from the Law Enforcement Management
Information System (LEMIS) for the time period between
November 04, 2002 and November 26, 20052. In addition
to this, the ports of export in the United States as well as importing counties
will be listed. We find
these data to be compelling enough that the decision was made to devote a
section of this web site to it. It should be stressed that
these numbers only reflect live declared trade; Assumptions of illegal
trade or deceased
animals possibly exported as meat or fish are not included in these pages.

Animals exported from the United States have
four primary destinations. The first is directly to the food markets of China and
Southeast Asia. The second is to Asian turtle farms where the majority are
"grown out", much like our cattle feed lots, and then sent to the markets; 3a,3b the
third is for breeding stock in turtle
farms; and the fourth is for the huge pet markets around the world.

Arguments can be made both for and against this trade. Some people opine
that the shipment and sales of American species produced in large numbers
actually save endangered foreign species by taking their place in the food and
pet markets. Others argue that the shipment and subsequent release of American
species do tremendous damage to the ecology of countries around the globe with
breeding colonies of high fecundity American turtles competing with possibly
endangered native
species. Still other people will argue that there is no such thing as an ethically
acceptable trade in turtles whatsoever. We will make no value judgment in
these pages, the data are presented as received and it will be up to the
reader to decide for him or herself the ethics of this trade. The purpose of
this series of pages is to point out that the trade in chelonia is not something
only happening someplace else, it is intended to evoke thought and discussion, not to support or
condemn this trade. For this reason the final page of this work is titled
"Discussion" rather than "Conclusions". It is up to the readers to think
on these data and reach their own conclusions.

The data was tabulated as could best be done
with the information at hand. Some animals were listed by as many as three different names.
In those cases the numbers were totaled. Others were listed by only their
Genus names. In those cases a representative of the Genus was used for photos
and the data presented "as is". The layout of this work will be as
follows.

If possible links will be provided to
pertinent information about the species on this site. Supplying care
information should not be construed as support for this trade.

If there is a conservation status for
this species it will be noted

The numbers of live animals exported
between November 04, 2002 and November 26, 2005 will be supplied for each species, detailing the
total numbers of animals as well as the number and the percentage of the total
for each year which were wild caught.

Yearly Totals - all species combined
exported in each year with the number of wild caught and wild caught
percentage calculated. The totals will be presented in the
same manner for the entire time period for which we have data.

Yearly totals with the data for
Apalone, Pseudemys and Trachemys species removed for pet market trend
analyses

Apalone, Pseudemys and Trachemys
totals - all other species data removed

Monthly Totals - totals broken down by
month for the entire time period with annotation

1 - The term "declared" is used
throughout this document, animals are "declared" in shipping
documentation. Items that are declared in passing through customs may or may not
have accurate documentation and do not reflect legality i.e.. for example items
shipped under fraudulent documentation could possibly be passed through customs
but may not be legal or the documentation may not reflect the true contents. These data
are received as "declared shipping" and will be presented in that light.

2 - Numbers are recorded by hand (keystroke)
into the LEMIS resulting in a data lag. For this reason the 2005 data should be
viewed as possibly incomplete.

3a - Peter Paul van Dijk - pers. comm.)

3b - CONVENTION
ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA
AC19Doc. 15.2
(Rev. 1)